Summer Worship Schedule Sunday, May 22 - September 4. One Service at 9:00 A.M.

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1 May 2011 Summer Worship Schedule Sunday, May 22 - September 4 One Service at 9:00 A.M. The style of worship will alternate between Traditional and Contemporary. Below is the tentative schedule: May 22 May 29 June 5 June 12 June 19 June 26 July 3 July 10 July 17 July 24 July 31 August 7 August 14 August 21 August 28 Service Sunday (Brief worship service followed by Service Projects in the community) Traditional Worship Contemporary Worship led by Free Spirit (2011 High School graduates will be honored) Contemporary Worship led by Proclaim!!! Traditional Worship Contemporary Worship led by Free Spirit Traditional Worship Blue Grass Service Traditional Worship Contemporary Worship led by Proclaim!!! Traditional Worship Traditional Worship Contemporary Worship led by Free Spirit Mission Trip Sunday led by High School and Middle School Mission Trip Participants Traditional Worship September 4 Traditional Worship

2 CAFÉ MIDWEEK - May Menu May 4 - Sloppy Joes May 11 - Pizza Serving is from 5:00-6:00 p.m. Cost is $3.00/person with a family maximum of $ Café Midweek will reopen on September 14 th Facts and Figures for March 2011 (Actual) (Budget) Mar. Offering $50,322 $53,500 Mar. Expenses $53,143 $61,497 YTD Offering $143,167 $152,000 YTD Expenses $160,692 $167,967 Offerings for March were $3178 below budget, and March Expenses were $8354 below budget. During these difficult economic times we thank everyone for their continued support of the ministries of Our Savior s Lutheran. Thank you to the Staff and Church Council for their careful management of expenses. Lamplighter s Meeting Tuesday, May 3 1:00pm Visitors are always welcome.

3 April Baptisms April 3, 2011 Ava Rae Greden daughter of Tammy and Mark Greden Jaxie Quinn Vinar daughter of Heather Vinar and Guy Thompson April 17, 2011 Addisyn Lynn Moriarity daughter of Roxanna Kotek and Jacob Moriarity Welcome to the family little one! Our Sympathy To: Don and Peggy Paulson family in the death of Don s father, Dean Paulson Jan and Shirley Luikens family in the death of Shirley s mother, Florence Lindberg The family and friends of Char Johns. May the promise of resurrection into eternal life give you much hope and comfort in this time of loss.

4 Wal Reat and Pastor Steve Delzer hope to travel to Ethiopia and South Sudan in June. For the past two years members of Our Savior s have been providing financial support for the pastoral training of six leaders of the churches in South Sudan. These six students have been attending the Jak Jordan Bible School in Gambella, Ethiopia. The school is operated by the Lutheran Church in Ethiopia. The six students will graduate on June 19th. Wal Reat and Pastor Steve Delzer hope to travel to Gambella for their Graduation Ceremony, and then to Nasir, South Sudan for their Ordination as Pastors of the churches they serve. The names of these six men and the churches they serve are:! James Bipen Kong serving Pulroa Lutheran Church! Simon Tor Puk serving Kierwan Lutheran Church! David Mach Pal serving Nyagol Lutheran Church! John Chuol Kong serving Nasir Town Lutheran Church! Michael Dak Top serving Denghoth Lutheran Church! John Chuol Ruach serving Ngoanykel Lutheran Church The preliminary estimate of costs for air and travel expenses is approximately $10,000. As of April 24 about $ has been contributed. To contribute please use one of the Mission to Sudan envelopes found at the Welcome Center or write Mission to Sudan in the memo line on your check. Please keep the six students, the people of South Sudan, Wal, and Pastor Steve in your prayers during the coming months. The Southeastern Minnesota Synod Assembly May 6 & 7 in Rochester. Voting Members from Our Savior s are: Troy Dunn, Bruce Schreckenberg, Dan Rasmussen, Larry Churchill, Maria Markman, Pastor Joanna Mitchell, and Pastor Steve Delzer. Intern Don Kloster will also be attending the Synod Assembly. The Assembly begins on Friday, May 6 at 8:30am with Opening Worship and concludes of Saturday, May 7 at 4:00pm. This year s Assembly theme is God s Work, Our Lutheran Hands. In addition to the regular business there will be five short Bible Studies led by members of the Synod Book of Faith Task Force and seven elective workshops to show how our Lutheran Hands carry on God s Work. Preachers at the Assembly Worship Services will be Bishop Harold Usgaard and Rev. Peg Chemberlin, Executive Director of the Minnesota Council of Churches. Please keep all of the Synod Assembly participants in your prayers.

5 New Sunday Morning Schedule Begins on Sunday, September 11 8:30 a.m. - Traditional Worship 9:30 a.m.- Education Hour for all ages 10:30 a.m. - Contemporary Worship There will not be Sunday School during the early (8:30) Traditional Worship Service. Instead, Sunday School will be during the Education Hour from 9:30-10:30. During the Education Hour there will also be Education classes and Fellowship time for both teens and adults. The late (10:30) Contemporary Worship Service will begin 15 minutes earlier than in past years. These changes come as the result of extensive discussions with several members of the congregation, the staff, and the Church Council. The goal of these changes is to provide the opportunity for families to worship together on Sunday mornings and also participate in Christian Education. It is our hope that all members will commit to two hours on Sunday mornings for Worship and Education/Fellowship. Children s Ministry Thank you all for a great 1 st year! The last day of Sunday School is May 8 th and the last day of Wednesday School is May 11 th. It is hard to imagine that the year is over and that summer is already here! Thank you to all those who volunteered their time teaching on Sunday or Wednesday this year. What you do is truly appreciated you are making a difference for a lifetime! Teacher appreciation Sunday will be on Sunday, May 8 th where we will recognize all of our volunteers and the great work they do! GEV On The Road GVE On The Road runs the week of June 12 th at Our Savior s. This camp is open to any family, kids who have completed kindergarten through kids that have completed 4 th Grade, so please invite other families you may know outside of Our Savior s to join us for a fantastic week! Registration for this camp can also be found on the church website and are due May 29 th. Donations Needed: Every year we kick off GEV On The Road on Sunday evening with the parents and kids that will be participating. We have a little Ice Cream party for the families after wards. We are in need of the following items: 150 plastic bowls 150 plastic spoons 5 gallons of ice cream Assortment of ice cream toppings Please contact Kira Anderson via (kira@oursaviorsfbo.org) or phone if you are willing to donate any of the above items for the party!

6 Important Information for VBS and GEV On The Road! Don t delay! Register your child for Vacation Bible School and GEV On The Road (aka Day Camp) as soon as possible as spots will fill-up fast. Registrations can be found on the church website ( under Children s Activities. We are also looking for volunteers to help with the week-long PandaMania VBS this June 20 th -24 th from 8:30-11:00 AM each day. Areas available to volunteer for are: " Group Leader/helper; to help guide a group of 5-8 kids from activity to activity, keep them on task, and assist them with the projects " Craft Coordinator: I will put everything together for you each day, you just need to present it to the group of kids that come through your station. " Storyteller; to teach our daily bible story to the students " Music leader and helpers; to help lead the kids in song and get them energized with the music " Game coordinator and helpers; I will put everything together for you each day, you just need to present it to the group of kids that come through your station. " Snack coordinator and servers; all of the snacks will be donated, you just need to organize them and hand them out to the kids each day, the kids LOVE the snack people! Donating to the theme?!?! I am looking for anything Panda and anything Asian inspired that would help with the decorating around church. If you have anything, please let me know! There are donation forms at the front office table. We would appreciate anything you might have! The kids also get snacks everyday that relate to the topic we are learning about. We are in need of the following food donations. If you are willing to donate any of the below food please let Kira know. It will need to be dropped off by June 15 th. Thanks! Day 1- Creation- Maker Mix Honey Nut Chex (1 Box) Lucky Charms Cereal (1 Box) Plain M&Ms (2 bags) Cinnamon Graham Goldfish crackers (apx 6.6 oz. bag) Raisins (apx 28 oz.) Yogurt Covered raisins (apx 5 8oz. bags) Day 2- Elijah confronts prophets of Baal- Elijah s Alter Carrot cake cupcakes Whipped butter cream frosting, tinted blue (2 containers) Red Hot cinnamon candies (need apx 250)

7 Day 3- Jonah tries to escape from God- Fish Food Quaker True delights Cheddar Cheese Rice Snacks (apx 200) Triangle shaped baked crackers (apx 100) Squirt on Mild Cheddar Cheese (2 cans) Raisins (1 box) Seedless Grapes (2lbs) Day 4- Jesus Dies and comes back to life- Cross of life Long Pretzel Rods (apx 100) Vanilla almond bark or white chocolate (apx 15 g. bag) Cake decorating sprinkles Red snack plates Roll of Wax paper Day 5- God Gives Hannah a baby- Sweet gifts Graham Crackers (2 boxes) Low-fat vanilla yogurt (4) 32 oz containers Whipped Topping (1) spray can Frozen Blueberries, (2) 16 oz. packages.

8 Community Garden Our Savior s has been the home of the garden plot used by the Welcome Center. Families in this community have been able to grow their own fresh produce on the ground we have supplied. We understand due to financial circumstances, the garden is no longer available through the Welcome Center. We are thankful that Bruce Schreckenberg has volunteered to organize and maintain the garden s availability for those who have used it in the past. We have been unable to find a list of the people that have used it in the past but if you hear of anyone still desiring to use the garden, please have them contact Bruce. Additionally, there are new opportunities for the community, including those of us here at Our Savior s. We hope to help grow fresh produce, for those in need that are helping with the garden and contribute any excess to local food shelf providers. There will be opportunities for those of us with gardening knowledge to teach children, grandchildren and others about the fun and rewards of growing your own vegetables. We hope to establish a community get together location, where we will meet one or more nights a week. It can be an opportunity to share, maintain the garden, eat, sing and be inspired. If you are as excited as we are, please contact Bruce Schreckenberg at or on line at garden@oursaviorsfbo.org

9 Saying Goodbye to FAITH Street For the last 6 years, I have led our FAITH Street family Worship service during the school year from 9:45am until 10:30am. It all began out of a desire to bring kids and parents together to worship in a kid friendly manner, helping families to take what they learn at church and bring a shared experience and conversation home. I am so thrilled because I believe that we really accomplished this goal. Every week we have sent families home with conversation starters and devotional cards. We have taught the virtues of faith and proclaimed the message of God s love week after week. We have done some crazy things too- from throwing pies in people s faces, lip synching to old 80s songs, I ve had water squirted in my face from a distance and even duct taped our fabulous comic co-host, Scott Eitel to a wall. But on a more serious note, families at FAITH Street have communed together, prayed together and all of us young and old have grown together. I write all this with a bittersweet feeling in my heart because our plan for fall is to discontinue FAITH Street as we currently know it. For the past two years attendance at FAITH Street has declined and I have wondered if we are still meeting a need and achieving our goal. The staff has been asking some big question this Spring and we agreed it seemed time for a change. Our worship schedule next fall will be as follows: 8:30am traditional worship, 9:30 am Education Hour, 10:30am contemporary worship. The thing I will miss the most about FAITH Street is working with the youth as we prepare for worship. For the past 6 years I have worked with extremely talented and dedicated youth and adults who are incredible leaders. They lead worship always willing to have a good time, laugh together and share their faith with others. They memorize scripts in a week, and while we might not get everything done perfect their commitment has made a difference in the lives of the families attending FAITH Street and in my life

10 too. A number of the youth have already expressed disappointment that FAITH Street won t continue next fall. My response has been wait and see, we may still have little bits and pieces of FAITH Street still in existence at Our Savior s in the future. Our staff has already talked about how we can incorporate parts of FAITH Street into our Sunday and Wednesday programming including both worship and our education hour. I m not sure exactly what that will look like just yet, but I am committed to making it work. Above all, I want to say thanks! Thanks to all of the great actors, the great co-hosts, my sound people, FAITH Street has been a blast. I want to say thank you to all of the families who have attended our family worship and allowed us to make mistakes, be silly, hear my not so great sound effects and have fun with us. And thank you to all of you at Our Savior s for being willing to try something different in order to help families grow in faith. Blessings, Pastor Joanna Dear People of Our Savior s, Many of you have already seen this article as it was printed in the daily news last Friday. I just want to say thank you to all of you. We put forth a strong effort, we worked hard and I believe we followed the commands of Jesus well in feeding the hungry and taking care of the poor. I am so proud to be your pastor and I hope you know that I truly believe that we won this event! If you are willing to help serve ice cream this summer at First English, let me know. It was fun to go over there last year and share in fellowship and ice cream together. Thank you once again!!! A Challenge Worth Losing I m a pretty competitive person while I m not athletically gifted I do enjoy winning at cards, board games and contests. I may even on occasion goad people while we

11 play a game, something of which I am not overly proud. But the last two years I have realized there is incredible power in losing. Last year, I initiated a challenge on behalf of Our Savior s Lutheran Church to First English Lutheran asking them to participate in a contest to see who would be the Super Hero for Hunger. It was a pretty fun competition. Each week we submitted our weekly totals of pounds of food and dollars we had collected. These numbers served as great motivators for the people within our congregations. The final week of the contest I received a phone call from Pastor Richard Jorgenson, who after looking at First English s numbers and ours at Our Savior s thought it might be best to call it a tie. We were extremely close the third week. But for some reason the competitive spirit in me wouldn t say yes. No, it s more fun if we have a winner and a loser, I told him. And so we submitted our totals and the results were- Our Savior s had lost and First English won in a sprint to the finish. Our Savior s had lead the entire month and in the final week First English had pulled ahead. Our Savior s had the duty of going over to First English one Sunday and serving ice cream. In the end it was a lot of fun and we brought in over 6,000 lbs/dollars for the Faribault Food Shelf. This year I decided once again to initiate the challenge to First English and the competition took off quickly. We at Our Savior s were determined this year to win. Food poured in as well as dollars. Our confirmation students went out into the community and gathered food, First English threw a concert with the admission fee of an item for the food shelf. There was a great spirit of competition. We quickly passed our last year s totals. On April 1 st we revealed our totals. It was a nail biter- First English 6,080 lbs/dollars and Our Savior s 5,942 lbs/dollars. 138 lb/dollar difference! Together our two congregations brought in 12,022 lbs/dollars for the foodshelf! I ll admit I was disappointed we didn t win. I was looking forward to the delicious ice cream served by First English. But the fact that we doubled the amount of money and food we gave in the last two years I believe that the Faribault Food Shelf and those who are hungry have triumphantly won! It will be an honor to serve First English ice cream once again this summer. And I will keep initiating the challenge year after year. I will happily lose year after year if we can keep growing and

12 serving others by feeding the hungry (although I have a feeling next year is our year!). This is the challenge put before us to care for those in need to feed the hungry and when we do that we do all win! Thank you! Pastor Joanna Mitchell

13 Summer Youth Trips Spots Still Available Invite a Friend! Registration materials with additional information are available online or outside the Youth Room. Confirmation Camp - Open for all students in grades 6-8 June Interstate Park - Taylors Fall, Mn Spend five nights camping in tents, participating in a number of fun activities, building friendships, and learning about our Savior and His love for us. Middle School Mission Trip July Rapid City, SD Spend a week in the Rapid City area serving the homeless, children, and the elderly. Work may involve cleanup and painting, helping at a summer camp, serving meals, and visiting the elderly. Individual cost for the trip is $ High School Mission Trip July 30-August 7 Bayou La Batre, AL Bayou La Batre is on the Gulf Coast near Mobile, AL. This community is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Our work here will be divided between hurricane relief work and working with children s ministries. Week-long mission trips are a great opportunity to see God working through you and others, as well as a chance to experience God s love firsthand. Graduation Recognition Sunday, June 5 9:00 A.M. On Sunday, June 5 during worship we will be recognizing the 2011 High School Graduates. We would like to show a slide presentation of the graduates during this recognition. If you have a son or daughter who is part of the Class of 2011 please bring in or (geo@oursaviorsfbo.org) your child s picture to the church office by May 31. Thank You!

14 SERVICE SUNDAY: MAY 22ND, AM WORSHIP AND GATHERING 9:30AM-11:30AM- SERVICE EVENTS 11:30-12:30PM CONGREGATIONAL MEAL Playing games and joining in conversation at Nursing Homes Planting Gardens Assembling health care kits for Red Cross Cleaning and organizing at Ruth s House Home maintenance projects Sharing lemonade and coffee and prayer with people The goal of Service Sunday is to share our faith with our community through the work of our hands. On Sunday May 1 st we will have a listing of activities of various service events. Please sign up and let us know you will participate. We will also have childcare available for you if it is needed. Please indicate that on your sign-up sheet as well. Kids are welcome to participate alongside of their families, however, we do realize that some children are too little and therefore will offer nursery care. Thank you for your willingness to serve. Pastor Joanna Library Survey Results Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out the Library Survey a few months ago. The Library team appreciated the feedback. We discovered that people had diverse opinions about the library and some people didn t even realize that we had a library. We also realized because of the number of small group meetings that happen in the Fireside Room (library) that there really hasn t been an opportunity for people to come in and use the library on Sunday mornings. Based on the survey and a conversation between our Library Team and staff we have decided the following: The Fireside room (library) will continue to have a bookshelf with reference books available for people to use for their study. The chapel currently has a number of bookshelves filled with children s books and videos. These will be available for checkout. Check-out is as easy as signing the book out and returning it when you are done using it. Plans are in the works to put a few book shelves in the Narthex outside of the Fireworks room. These books will also be available for easy sign out. Once again thank you for your time and support. If you have any questions please feel free to speak with one of the pastors. Thanks!

15 Women s Retreat Thank you to everyone who got back to me about the women s retreat. I am very excited that many of you are interested and willing to help plan the event. On May 29 th following the 9am Worship service I would like to have a brief meeting in the Fireside Room (library). At this meeting I would like to examine potential dates and themes. Because of Easter falling so late this year, and of a very busy May, I do not believe that a Spring Retreat will happen. If you are interested in participating but cannot make the May 29 th meeting please send me an at joannaoslc@hotmail.com. Please include dates that do not work for you- if you would like to try an event this summer or wait until fall, if you would like to stay at Our Savior s, go away, and/or have an overnight get away. Thank so much! Pastor Joanna

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